Peoples Financial Services Corp. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.62 (NASDAQ:PFIS)

Peoples Financial Services Corp. (NASDAQ:PFIS) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, February 3rd,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a dividend of 0.6175 per share by the financial services provider on Friday, March 14th. This represents a $2.47 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.83%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th.

Peoples Financial Services has raised its dividend payment by an average of 11.1% per year over the last three years. Peoples Financial Services has a payout ratio of 36.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Peoples Financial Services to earn $5.92 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.47 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 41.7%.

Peoples Financial Services Stock Performance

Shares of PFIS traded down $0.38 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $51.09. The stock had a trading volume of 12,099 shares, compared to its average volume of 29,680. Peoples Financial Services has a fifty-two week low of $36.26 and a fifty-two week high of $59.70. The company has a quick ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 0.93 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. The company has a market cap of $510.39 million, a PE ratio of 49.60 and a beta of 0.56. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $52.29 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $49.09.

Peoples Financial Services (NASDAQ:PFIS) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The financial services provider reported $1.64 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.08 by $0.56. Peoples Financial Services had a net margin of 3.00% and a return on equity of 7.73%. The company had revenue of $74.01 million for the quarter. On average, equities analysts expect that Peoples Financial Services will post 4.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on PFIS. Hovde Group lifted their price objective on shares of Peoples Financial Services from $48.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Peoples Financial Services from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Stephens upgraded Peoples Financial Services from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th.

About Peoples Financial Services

Peoples Financial Services Corp. operates as the bank holding company for Peoples Security Bank and Trust Company that provides various commercial and retail banking services. The company accepts money market, negotiable order of withdrawal, savings, individual retirement, demand deposit, and certificates of deposit accounts.